Sahara in line of apex court’s ire

OUR LEGAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, Dec. 3: The Supreme Court today pulled up the Sahara group for not refunding Rs 24,000 crore to investors.

“Every step you have taken is shady. We are not interested in documents. We are interested in money being paid to investors. We are more concerned with small investors,” a bench comprising Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and justices S.S. Nijjar and J. Chelameshwar told the Sahara counsel.

Market regulator Sebi has already filed a contempt case against the group for not obeying the apex court’s order. It is coming up for hearing later.

Today, the court was hearing the Sahara group’s plea against the order of the Securities Appellate Tribunal, which had dismissed its petition against Sebi on the refund of the Rs 24,000 crore.

Sahara claimed that it was Sebi which was not willing to accept the money. The Sebi counsel argued that the matter should go to the bench, which had passed the earlier order directing Sahara to refund the money.

The present bench however, observed: “We are only helping the investors to get back their money. We are not interfering and not changing the order.”